David Leader is a professional poker player from Atlanta, GA who also enjoys casual strategic gaming. He's been on the Pro Tour for another card game eight times, but was never quite able to break through with a stellar finish.
Neil Reeves needs little introduction to TCG fans. He was famous before he started playing the Vs. System, but his Top 4 finish at Gen Con Indy made him a superstar across the TCG world.
Leader took the odds for initiative and then mulliganed. He didn't look happy with his second set of four, either. Neil kicked things off in style by dropping Dawn Granger ◊ Dove into play, earning a “How lucky” from Leader, and then followed Dove with Tim Drake ◊ Robin, Young Detective. Leader still had no plays. Costume Change let Leader search his deck for Spider-Man, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, while Reeves continued to hit his drops with a Beast Boy. Leader recruited Puma to his side, while Reeves used the USS Argus to improve his draw quality (if not quantity) as he recruited Terra.
Terra knocked out Spidey, but a team attack with the rest of Reeves’s characters failed to do anything useful when Puma proved adept at Dodging the blows. Press the Attack on Terra and a Teen Titans Go! made that play mostly irrelevant, as another swing with the whole team brought Puma to his knees. Daredevil made an appearance for Leader, and Reeves played Garth ◊ Tempest, matching Leader’s 5-drop. Puma and Daredevil team-attacked Beast Boy so that Leader could Overload him, letting Leader's subsequent attacks bash both Terra and Garth. This gave Leader a two-for-none KO exchange in a turn that ended with Reeves bringing Dove back from the KO’d pile.
“That was a bad turn,” was Reeves's wry comment as he looked at the life totals—his 28 to Leader's 39—and his decimated board.
Reeves and his fresh army of weenies, courtesy of a boosted Dove and another Beast Boy, smashed into Leader's new Mattie Franklin ◊ Spider-Woman. Leader went crazy with the cheese whiz, using her ability five times to give her 19 ATK/19 DEF, and then he used Spider Senses to pump Mattie's booty to 22 DEF. This made her just large enough to survive the attack. Reeves powered up Garth, but Leader had the Savage Beatdown and the Overload to take out Dove, which again made Reeves's attackers bounce. Neil was clearly frustrated by this turn of events, but he used Teen Titans Go! and Finishing Move to make sure that he at least took out the 6-drop. Still, it was far more costly than he wanted it to be.
“Ezekiel, draw three cards,” Leader said pleasantly. Reeves just shook his head and shrugged at the crowd.
At the end of Leader’s build step, Neil said, “I'll activate the Argus.” He plucked his cards up one at a time, reacting like this:
“That ain't it.”
“How bout this one?”
“One more time!”
“Great googly moogly!”
Reeves took a long time after drawing, considering what to bring back from the KO’d pile with Garth before his build phase. He finally chose to do nothing. Eventually, he recruited Roy Harper ◊ Arsenal, and then did nothing else.
“Is that your formation?” Leader asked.
“Just a second. It won't take much longer . . . I fear this massacre is about over.”
Two copies of Nice Try! on Arsenal activations, and it was over. After his awesome weekend in August, Reeves has now crashed into the 1-3 bracket—he has a lot of work left to do if he’s going to appear in Day 2.
Leader 1 - Reeves 0